


The Sweet Nectar Of Life

by Diamond_Raven



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Friends to Lovers, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Minor Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:00:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26682592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Diamond_Raven/pseuds/Diamond_Raven
Summary: Since Merlin’s a wraith and Arthur’s a wraith hunter, their professional relationship is straight forward. Well, it should be. Unfortunately, their personal relationship is a complicated mess and that means their professional relationship isn’t as clear cut as Arthur would prefer.
Relationships: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Comments: 20
Kudos: 90





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. The wraiths in this story are inspired by the wraiths in Stargate Atlantis. No knowledge of SGA is necessary.
> 
> 2\. I've tagged all the major themes but I don't provide trigger warnings for minor events. Feel free to email me if you'd like to ask whether specific things take place in this story or not.

“So you’re really a wraith hunter?” she asks, still using the same flirtatious voice she’s been using ever since the interview had started.

Arthur doesn’t look up from his tablet. He decides this is the perfect opportunity to put a stop to her relentless efforts to get into his trousers. There are a lot of reasons why it won’t be happening, the least of which is because he’s getting more certain by the minute that Merlin’s definitely the wraith who had attacked her. As always when that’s the case, that realization leaves Arthur battling all sorts of conflicting emotions and the last thing he needs is to fight off advances from someone he’s not interested in. “I’m a dark creature relocation specialist,” he tells her, adding a hard edge into his tone.

“Hmm. Wraith hunter sounds sexier,” she determines.

Since his tone clearly isn’t doing the job, he looks up and puts a bored expression on his face. She’s twirling a lock of hair around her fingers but her smile gets brighter, which is unfortunate. Deciding to ignore her attempts to derail the conversation, he pulls up the panel of photos and turns the tablet towards her. “Can you identify the individual who attacked you?”

She chuckles and rolls her eyes. “I wouldn’t say he attacked me. That’s a bit harsh, isn’t it? He was such a gentleman about it—asking my permission and explaining everything. Told me I was free to change my mind at any point and he’d undo it all. That’s not really an attack, is it?”

This is exactly why he hates dealing with cases where Merlin’s involved. It’s complicated and Arthur hates complicated things. His job never used to be complicated, up until Merlin had appeared in his life. Clenching his jaw, he raises an eyebrow at her and struggles to keep hold of his temper. “Do you see his photo?”

He holds his breath, clinging to that last bit of hope that it wasn’t Merlin. Based on everything she’s said, it certainly sounds like him, but he pretends there’s a chance it might be somebody else. But to his dismay, she immediately points at Merlin’s photo that the department had taken a few months ago when Merlin had earned his spot on their regulars list.

“That’s him. But that photo is terrible! He was gorgeous. So polite and he had such a pretty smile.”

The mention of Merlin’s smile makes Arthur’s heart do that weird thing it tends to do since his life got complicated. Because he knows exactly what smile she’s talking about. It had been Merlin’s smile on his profile picture that had caught Arthur’s attention on the dating website in the first place. Out of the dozens of profiles he’d scrolled past, it had been Merlin’s smile that had made his fingers pause. Finally getting to see that smile in person when they’d met up for their first date had been great.

Unfortunately, Merlin’s smile, his charming personality and the rest of his gorgeous self had sufficiently distracted Arthur from making note of all the details that would have told him from the start that Merlin isn’t only inappropriate dating material, but he presents a myriad of complications that Arthur would have rather done without. Details such as the black leather gloves that Merlin always wears, which have metal plates embedded over both palms. Details such as Merlin requesting that they go to a movie or for a walk and how he always avoided eating or drinking around Arthur.

Arthur had been distracted by Merlin’s looks, his charms, how easily they’d gotten on and all the odd things they had in common, such as their shared love for sappy romantic comedy movies, a fact which Arthur has always worked hard to hide. Morgana’s the only other person who knows he doesn’t spend his Friday nights watching movies featuring epic space battles or whatever men are supposed to enjoy watching. And she’d found out by accident. But Arthur had felt brave enough to tell Merlin and their second date had taken place at Arthur’s flat, with Merlin politely claiming that he wasn’t hungry or thirsty and they’d watched two movies back to back, both of them sitting there with ridiculous smiles on their faces.

Then their third date had rolled around and everything had fallen apart. They’d met up at a park and gone for a walk. Everything had been lovely and Arthur had been considering whether Merlin would react well to Arthur kissing him...then things had abruptly stopped being lovely when Merlin had pulled Arthur down on a bench, mumbling that he needed to tell him something. And that’s when Arthur’s life had gone from being lovely to being complicated, because Merlin ended up confessing something that should have already been obvious.

Arthur couldn’t begin to describe the many emotions that had run through him at the realization that Merlin’s a wraith. The realization that it’s literally Arthur’s job to hunt creatures like him down and either kill them or drag them back to the lower world. His wonderful Merlin with his beautiful smile, who gets misty-eyed and sighs happily while watching Arthur’s favourite sappy romance movies, who Arthur had been desperately wanting to kiss...his Merlin is a wraith. A dangerous creature from the lower world who needs to feed on human’s lives in order to survive in their world.

Merlin had looked so nervous after his confession and he’d been very concerned about Arthur’s well being. Arthur can’t remember what Merlin had said as he’d sat there, numb with shock. Then Merlin had run towards the nearby coffee shop to buy Arthur a hot cocoa to calm him down. Arthur’s shock had faded while he’d watched Merlin running off to the shop. His first thought had been that Merlin might attack the innocent people in the shop and although he knows now that such a thought is ridiculous and that’s not how Merlin does things, Arthur’s training had taken over and he’d called the department and turned Merlin in.

Arthur had watched Merlin step out of the shop, a paper cup of hot cocoa in his gloved hand and a smile on his face. That smile had shifted into a frown of confusion at the sight of the agents who had appeared around Arthur and the frown eventually changed into a look of hurt as the agents grabbed him and dragged him away to the nearest portal. Merlin had dropped the paper cup when he’d been grabbed and it seemed to fall in slow motion; hitting the ground and the hot cocoa spraying everywhere.

The entire scene reminded Arthur of those over dramatic scenes in the movies he loves so much. When one person in the relationship witnesses something or is told something that makes them believe their partner had betrayed them. There’s usually depressing slow music and tears in the betrayed individual’s eyes as they stare at their partner with disbelief as circumstances make it impossible for the supposed betrayer to explain themselves.

But Arthur hates the idea that he’s somehow the bad guy in the situation. He hadn’t done anything wrong. It’s Merlin who had kept vital information about himself hidden. Merlin’s not supposed to be in the upper world anyway and he’s a threat to everybody’s safety—including Arthur’s—so he’d done the right thing.

Unfortunately, those beliefs had only lasted for a few hours until Arthur had acknowledged that he’d handled the situation poorly. Legally, Merlin and any other dark creature is allowed to spend as much time in the upper world as they please, as long as they don’t negatively interfere with a human being. Merlin hadn’t made any attempts to feed on Arthur, not did Arthur have any evidence that Merlin had fed on any human. Of course, Merlin would have had to be getting sustenance from somewhere or he wouldn’t have been able to continue surviving in the upper world. But Arthur had no solid proof that he’d broken the law and yet, Arthur had turned Merlin in.

Up to that point, Arthur had always prided himself on enforcing the law properly and it had been upsetting to realize that he’d failed when it mattered most. It doesn’t help that Arthur can’t stop thinking about Merlin, remembering those three dates and wishing that things would be different.

Four months later, things have become even more complicated because Merlin has decided he likes being in the upper world much more than the lower one and he’s practically turned the portals into revolving doors; coming back almost as soon as he’s shoved through.

The whole thing is stupid and complicated and Arthur eagerly looks forward to the days when he’s sent to track a pack of werewolves or exorcise a demon who had possessed someone. That’s easy. Straight forward. That’s what his life should always be like. Not stupid and complicated.

“You know, I thought he’d be awful looking? Those adverts you people put on the telly always make wraiths look horrible.”

Arthur blinks at her and tries focusing on his job. This isn’t about Merlin. This isn’t about those three dates or how he’d felt about him. This is about a wraith who had attacked an innocent human being and taken part of her life. Unlike during their third date, Merlin had broken the law and it’s Arthur’s job to enforce that law. “Don’t let their looks fool you,” he tells her. “A wraith can appear as human or as inhuman as they want, depending on how much effort they put into their corporeal form.”

“Uh huh.”

Suddenly desperate to get this over with, Arthur scrolls through the tablet to make sure he has everything he needs. “Have you been to hospital so they can make sure you’re alright?”

“Oh, no, that’s not necessary. He told he’d only take a few months, so that’s fine.” Her eyes widen. “And it didn’t hurt at all! Those adverts are really misleading, you know. All those people screaming and carrying on. It wasn’t like that at all. And those horrible burns that are shown—that’s all a lie too. It’s only a little pink! I’ve had much worse sunburns. See?”

She pulls down her already very low cut top to show Arthur a small patch of reddened skin on her chest. His eyes follow the movement of her hands before realizing what she’s doing and quickly averting his eyes.

“And when he did the actual thing, you know—” she lifts a hand and makes some vague gestures that must be mimicking how Merlin had placed his hand on her chest and slowly drawn her life force out. “—it actually felt really good. Like...really, really good.” She giggles a bit and blushes.

Clenching his jaw hard, Arthur is even more desperate to get out of here. Constantly hearing victims tell him that Merlin was his usual wonderful self even while feeding on somebody are things that make this complicated mess even more complicated.

But because the universe hates him or enjoys having a laugh at his expense, he doesn’t get his wish. Instead, he has to continue listening to this woman gush about how fantastic her experience being fed on by Merlin had been. Finally, he manages to steer the conversation to its conclusion, at which point she raises her eyebrows, an expectant look on her face.

“So when do I get my money? The adverts said you pay out once the attack has been confirmed.”

Swallowing his irritation at the entire situation, Arthur pulls out the cheque with the 150 pounds reward money and writes her name on it. She snatches it out of his hand, grinning. “I can’t believe I met two gorgeous men, had an orgasm and got 150 pounds!”

Arthur can’t begin to respond to any of that, so he just mumbles his way through saying goodbye and gets out of her flat. The interview had been bad enough, but now it’s time for what he hates even more: visiting Merlin.

* * *

Entering Gaius’ small bookshop, Arthur glances around and sees the old man in one of the aisles overflowing with stacks of books, fussing about with a pile of books on a cart. “Hello, Gaius.”

Gaius turns towards him, but his smile fades as soon as he recognizes him. “Arthur.”

“Is Merlin here?”

Gaius blinks and pastes an unconvincing frown of confusion on his face. “May I ask why you need him? Did he do something wrong?”

Arthur resists the urge to sigh. Having this mess being drawn out is the last thing he wants. “You know what he’s done and you know what I have to do.”

“Oh, I don’t know anything about anything. I’m just a silly old man. And I can’t seem to recall where Merlin is at the moment.”

Shifting his jaw, Arthur shoots him an unimpressed look. “Don’t do that, Gaius. You know how upset Merlin would be if you end up in trouble for aiding a dark creature who’s harmed humans.”

Gaius purses his lips and he abruptly turns back to his stack of books, ignoring Arthur.

Sighing, Arthur walks down another aisle and opens the door at the back of the shop and walks up the narrow stairwell that leads up to Gaius’ flat and his not-so-secret flatmate. When he gets to the top, he knocks on the door once but doesn’t bother waiting to be invited in. As he’d already known it would be, the door is unlocked when Arthur turns the knob and he steps inside.

The television’s on and Arthur recognizes the movie that’s playing on it. It’s one of his favourites and that makes this whole thing even worse. He wants to think that Merlin does this deliberately to torture him, but he knows that’s not true. He steps around the old couch and stares down at Merlin, who’s sprawled out on it, eyes glued to the television screen.

“That was quick,” Merlin mumbles, not looking at him. “I only left her two hours ago.”

Arthur shrugs. “It’s the reward money. The new program’s working well.”

Merlin makes a noise in his throat, but doesn’t make a move to get off the couch.

Sighing, Arthur briefly closes his eyes and asks himself for the millionth time why the universe wanted his life to become complicated. “Come on, let’s go.”

“In a minute. It’s our favourite part coming up.”

Arthur glances at the screen. The two lovers had just finished having a row about one of them being transferred to Italy for a promotion. The one who was promoted doesn’t want to go, but the other one is pushing them go to, pretending that their relationship wasn’t serious enough for the other to give up such an opportunity. “You’ve seen this movie at least three times,” Arthur tells Merlin. “He lets her leave, then he chases after her in a taxi and finds her at the airport, where he confesses his true feelings, she doesn’t go to Italy and they live happily ever after.”

Merlin still isn’t tearing his eyes off the screen. “I just want to watch the airport bit.”

“Merlin...”

“Please?” Finally, Merlin’s looking up at him and the pleading look in his eyes grabs hold of Arthur’s heart and squeezes.

“Merlin, you fed on a human.”

He scoffs. “She practically orchestrated the whole thing to get the reward money.”

“Are you telling me she fell on your feeding hand and forced you to feed on her?”

Merlin makes a face. “Well, no. But I only took a few months from her and I made sure she had a great time. Don’t I get any credit for that?”

“No. No, you don’t. That’s the way the law works.”

“Well, the law doesn’t state that you have to drag me out of here this minute, does it? Come on, sit down. I got you lunch and we can watch Derrick chase Anna to the airport and telling her he loves her.”

Merlin’s shifting over on the couch and holding up a take-away container from next to him with his gloved hand. Arthur’s instantly torn. He should be getting on with things and bringing Merlin to the portal that’s two streets over. But there’s only twenty minutes left in the movie and it really is time for lunch anyway. Damn Merlin and damn the universe for hating Arthur. “You swear you’ll come once the movie’s done?”

“I always do, don’t I? I promise, no fussing, no complaining.”

Sighing, Arthur unzips his uniform jacket and throws it over the back of the couch and unclips his stun gun holster from his thigh and drops it on the coffee table. Sitting down next to Merlin, he picks up the take-away container and opens it. His mouth waters at the sight of a delicious heaping of spaghetti.

“Oh, hang on! I put the garlic bread in the oven. It was getting all soggy,” Merlin says, pausing the movie and jumping up to run into the kitchen and get Arthur his garlic bread.

There’s a part of Arthur that wants to believe that all of this is a ruse on Merlin’s part. That he’s trying to buy time or trick Arthur into not paying attention so he can get away. But that’s not who Merlin is. He’s never once tried to run from Arthur, never mind trying to use his superior physical strength or supernatural abilities to harm him. The only time he’ll argue is when somebody’s made a false report about him and Merlin always turns out to be right in those cases. But when Merlin’s broken the law, he’ll be the first to admit to it and quietly accept the consequences. It’s all part of why Merlin continues to make Arthur’s life complicated.

Coming back to the couch, Merlin hands him a plate of garlic bread, the edges browned and crisp. “Enjoy. But don’t chew too loudly. I want to hear every word of Derrick’s dramatic confession that he was full of rubbish and she should stay in London with him.”

Rolling his eyes, Arthur stabs the plastic fork into the spaghetti and settles down to finish watching the movie with Merlin, making sure he’s chewing quietly so neither of them miss any of Derrick’s dialogue.

* * *

“Honestly, why don’t you just stay in the lower world?” Arthur asks Merlin as they’re trudging down the street to the nearest area where they can open a portal.

“They don’t have movies,” Merlin quips, shooting Arthur a smile.

Rolling his eyes, Arthur elbows him. “I’m being serious. This current government’s very committed to the relocation program, but you never know when things will change. If we go back to the old way of doing things, we’ll go back to focusing on extermination, not relocation. And the whole ‘innocent-until-guilty’ bit might also disappear.”

Merlin shrugs. “If I have to meet my end, then I’ll meet my end.”

The thought of Merlin being killed makes Arthur’s breath catch as a shiver runs through him and Merlin frowns at him, looking worried. “But don’t worry. If it comes to that, I’ll make sure you’re not the one who has to pull the trigger.”

Arthur wants to point out that not being the one to actually kill Merlin won’t make the whole thing okay, but he doesn’t want to get into any of that. “You didn’t properly answer my question.”

Sighing softly, Merlin makes a face. “I hate being in the lower world.”

“You’ve made that clear. But is this constant back and forth bit that much better? I can’t imagine that it’s worth it. You can never get anything done around here because you always have to leave and that’s never going to change.”

“I’m happy with my life here,” Merlin says. “I’ve got a place to live, I get to work in the shop to help Gaius and I’ve got you and Gaius. I have to feed on people to survive and I hate that, but I only take what I have to and I do my best not to hurt anybody. If I had the choice, I’d rather be human so I wouldn’t have to feed on anybody, but it’s still worth it.”

“I can’t imagine that it would be.”

Chewing on his lip, Merlin looks unhappy. “I promise, it’s better than being in the lower world.”

“But why? What’s so terrible down there that makes this whole thing worth it?”

“In the lower world, we’re all in our non-corporeal forms.”

“Yeah. So?”

“That means our forms all blend together and we can’t stay away from each other. There aren’t any boundaries. And because of the way things are, we can sense each other’s thoughts and emotions. Have you ever felt a nasty, cruel demon’s emotions or known what they think about?”

Arthur makes a face. “I can’t imagine that they’d be thinking about pleasant things.”

“No. Some of us are decent and good, like I try to be. But most of them enjoy giving in to their dark natures and I hate being constantly surrounded by that. It’s awful and it makes me feel awful. It’s like being stuck in a prison, surrounded by awful people who are telling you what awful things they want be doing and you can’t get away from them. Ever.”

Clenching his jaw, Arthur struggles to figure out what to say. He wishes he could spare Merlin from going back to the lower world, but he can’t. If Merlin could survive in this world without feeding on humans, everything would be perfect. But that’s not how things are.

They reach the familiar corner where they usually open a portal. Arthur’s still busy thinking about what Merlin’s about to endure so he isn’t taking out his portal connector device.

Merlin sighs softly and gently squeezes Arthur’s hands with his gloved ones; the metal embedded in the palm of his glove pressing against Arthur’s skin. “I’ll be fine, don’t worry.” He raises an eyebrow and grins. “You know I’ll be back.”

Arthur tries to smile at Merlin’s attempts to lighten the mood, but he can’t manage.

Thankfully, Merlin takes over for him and pulls off his gloves. Holding up his hand, he closes his eyes and there’s a crash of thunder and a bright flash of light, then a dark hole appears out of thin air, hovering just above the ground.

Merlin smiles at Arthur. His smile is strained and he looks a bit scared and Arthur has to clench his hands into fists so he doesn’t yank Merlin back from the portal and keep him here.

“See you later,” Merlin says, attempting to sound light hearted but failing miserably.

As Arthur watches, Merlin’s human form slowly fades as he transforms into swirls of green smoke. When Merlin’s corporeal human form is completely gone, the green smoke casually swoops around Arthur, as if hugging him. Arthur’s heart squeezes at the gesture, but the upper world’s atmosphere is toxic to Merlin’s non-corporeal form, so he needs to get out of here. “Go on,” he says to the mass of green smoke. “You shouldn’t hang about in this form, you know that.”

The tendrils of smoke slowly unwind from around Arthur and drift towards the portal, which rapidly sucks the swirling mass in. When the last bit of Merlin has vanished through the portal, there’s another clap of thunder and the black hole closes, leaving Arthur standing on the pavement and staring at nothing.

* * *

“I swear, it wasn’t me!”

Arthur gives Merlin a hard look, the bookshop counter between them. “He picked out your photo.”

“Yeah, because I did feed him on before. Two months ago?”

“47 days ago, according to our records.”

Merlin’s glaring, still agitated at having been—apparently—falsely accused, his gloved fingers tapping on the cash register impatiently. “You see? He’s just after the reward money!”

Arthur sighs. Why, oh why is there no sign that his life will ever go back to being simple? “You know the procedure. Your word isn’t good enough. I need evidence.”

Waving his hand towards the back door, Merlin appears to like his own odds because his glare has softened. “Go up and check the CCTV footage from Tuesday. You’ll see that I was here from noon until closing.”

So Arthur goes upstairs to look at the footage.

Ever since the department had started the reward program, these situations have been happening more and more frequently. To prolong the period of time that Merlin can spend in the upper world, Gaius had installed additional security cameras in the shop and in his flat so Merlin can easily provide alibis when he’s home alone or minding the shop on his own.

And of course, Merlin wasn’t lying this time either. Arthur watches the Tuesday footage on fast forward because he’d known that Merlin hadn’t lied. Sure enough, Merlin stays in the shop for eight straight hours, helping customers, organizing shelves or reading while sitting behind the counter. In an ironic way, Merlin being a wraith actually helps in these situations because he doesn’t need to leave the shop to eat or use the toilet, so there’s no missing time where he could be accused of going off to feed on somebody.

Arthur saves the relevant footage and finishes his report, stating that he’d verified the claim and it had proven to be false. He also logs the liar into the system so he’ll no longer be eligible for the reward money. He sends off his reports as he’s sitting on the couch, then he goes back downstairs.

Merlin’s helping a customer so Arthur wanders down some aisles, not wanting somebody to recognize his uniform and realize why he’s here. When the customer’s left, Arthur comes up to the counter. “I got the footage.”

Still looking anxious, Merlin stares at him. “And?”

“And you’re fine.”

Letting out a relieved sigh, Merlin smiles. “I told you.”

But Arthur can’t smile because he knows this is just temporary. “You and I both know that the next report’s going to be true and you’ll have to leave again.”

Merlin shrugs. “So be it. I’ll be fine not feeding for a few days.”

Arthur knows Merlin could go up to a week without feeding but by that point, he’d be struggling to maintain his corporeal form and that would mean he could never leave the flat and eventually, he’d have to go back to the lower world or risk dying. Merlin always feeds as little as possible and he never takes more than a few weeks or a few months from somebody’s life. Before the reward program had started, people had rarely reported Merlin for feeding on them and he’s spent as long as six months in the upper world without being kicked out by carefully pacing his feeding schedule.

No matter how much he thinks about it, Arthur can’t seem to decide if he’s alright with Merlin feeding on others or not. Since Merlin does it consensually and he makes sure his ‘supplier’ has a fantastic time throughout, it makes the situation even more difficult to untangle. But the one thing that’s clear is the law itself. The law doesn’t care whether a wraith’s victims end up dying or having spectacular orgasms as a result of the feeding process.

Maybe Merlin can see the unhappy look on Arthur’s face because he comes around the counter and leans against it. “When’s your shift done?”

“Late. Leon’s off sick so I’m doing a double.”

“Did you have lunch yet? You look tired.”

It’s not the lack of food that’s making Arthur grumpy at the world. “I’m fine.”

Merlin rolls his eyes. “No, you’re not. But if you don’t want to talk to me, that’s fine too. Do you want me to go get you some lunch?”

Annoyed at the idea that Merlin thinks Arthur isn’t capable of getting himself food—which isn’t what Merlin’s doing but Arthur’s grumpy and he doesn’t care—he shifts his jaw. “I can get my own lunch.”

“Alright, grumpy. You go do that. If you decide to stop being grumpy, you’re welcome to come over when your shift’s done. I’ll even let you pick the movie.”

It’s not the first time Merlin’s suggested that they spend time together outside of their professional roles and every single time, Arthur gets closer to giving in and accepting the offer. But the situation is still classified as complicated and until that resolves itself, he’s not comfortable spending time with Merlin in a non-professional setting. “Thanks, but...”

Merlin smiles softly. “Thanks but no thanks, right?”

Arthur shifts from one foot to the other. “Right.”

“That’s fine. I’ll keep asking and maybe one of these days you’ll be ready to say yes or you’ll tell me to stop asking.” He stares at Arthur, an unreadable expression in his eyes. “But until then, I’ll keep asking.”

Having no idea how to respond to that, Arthur decides the best course of action is to leave the shop and all the complications related to Merlin behind.

As he walks away from the shop, his thoughts keep going over their conversation. A part of him wants to go buy lunch, go back to the shop and spend time with Merlin. Now that Arthur’s confirmed that the report against Merlin had been false, the night wouldn’t end with Arthur having to escort Merlin to a portal...and that thought leads to a load of other dangerous thoughts that Arthur shouldn’t be dwelling on.

He’s so distracted that he registers the nearby crash of thunder, but he doesn’t react with the sense of urgency that he should. With most of his brain still thinking about how lovely it would be to spend his lunch break sitting with Merlin on the couch, he’s too slow to react and that’s how it takes him by surprise when a large male wraith comes barrelling out of the nearby street, grabs hold of him and slams him to the ground. The impact takes his breath away and he’s left staring up at the wraith as it grabs his uniform jacket and straddles him.

The pavement is hard beneath him and the wraith is snarling down at him. It’s clear from the wraith’s appearance that he’d put little effort into his human form or he doesn’t know any better. There are clumps of long, dark hair hanging from various parts of his pale head and also sprouting from his neck and muscular arms. He only has one eye and his parted lips reveal rows of overlapping sharp fangs. Arthur can’t help but stare at the wraith’s chosen nose, which has no nostrils and is located on his cheek, like it was an after thought.

Then the wraith tears open Arthur’s jacket and shirt to get to his chest; specially, his heart and the centre of his life force. Realizing what’s about to happen makes panic slam through him and Arthur frantically scrambles to pull his gun out. But the moment he’s grabbed hold of it, the wraith growls and grabs his wrist in a bruising grip, forcing Arthur to drop the gun. The wraith throws the gun out of his reach and tightens his grip on Arthur with his thighs and lifts his hand.

The slight bulge in the centre of his palm slides open to reveal the gaping feeding mouth and Arthur’s heart pounds with fear as he realizes that the wraith is about to feed on him. This wraith doesn’t look like he’ll only take a bit of Arthur’s life and adrenaline floods him as he frantically starts bucking up and trying to punch whatever part of the wraith he can get.

Unfortunately, the wraith doesn’t care about any of Arthur’s efforts to get him off him. He snarls down at him and his fingers flex on his lifted hand before he slams his palm against Arthur’s chest. A burning pain seers into his chest where the feeding mouth clamps against his skin. The excruciating pain makes Arthur cry out as he desperately yanks on the wraith’s arm, trying to pry it loose. But the wraith presses down harder, making the burning intensify.

That burning pain quickly spreads throughout Arthur’s body and he watches the wraith’s mouth twist into a smile as he begins sucking out Arthur’s life force. The pain is unbelievable and Arthur can only suck in tiny bursts of air as he keeps punching, scratching and tearing at the wraith’s arm, his heart racing from fear.

As his body seizes up from pain, Arthur eventually finds himself gripping the wraith’s arm, gasping as small whines of pain tear from his throat. He watches in horror as the skin on his arm begins to sag and wrinkle. Dark spots appear on his skin and his hand begins to shake as a dull, ache spreads through his grip around the wraith’s hand.

He’s getting older. The wraith is literally pulling his life away; drawing year after year; decade after decade from him and there’s no guarantee that the wraith will stop before Arthur dies.


	2. Chapter 2

His breath rattles in his chest and his aching hand eventually becomes too weak to hold onto the wraith’s arm and it flops to the ground. Every breath takes effort and he can barely keep his eyes open as that burning pain pulses through his body.

“Arthur! Oh, my God!”

Merlin. That’s Merlin’s voice.

There’s an electric whine from somewhere above Arthur’s head and the wraith jerks as it’s hit by something. Arthur recognizes the sound as having been his gun being charged up and discharged. The wraith snarls at the impact and looks up at something. The gun discharges twice more and wisps of green smoke erupt from the wraith. But he’s not letting go.

Then his gun discharges again. This time, Merlin’s not stopping. He shoots the wraith again and again and again. More of the wraith’s form turns to green smoke but he’s being fuelled by Arthur’s life force, making his corporeal form strong. But Merlin doesn’t give up and he continues firing at the wraith until finally, the weight pressing on Arthur disappears and a mass of green smoke hovers above him for a moment before it races away.

Arthur’s left lying on the ground and he can’t move. His entire body is burning with pain, especially his chest. He’s shaking and he also feels incredible weak. There’s a dull ache behind the fiery pain that’s shooting down his legs and arms. His lips are dry as he struggles to draw in air; every breath a battle.

“Arthur?!” Merlin’s face appears in Arthur’s blurry vision. He’s so glad that he gets to see Merlin one last time before he dies. Having Merlin be the last thing he sees isn’t a bad way to go and he pulls his dry lips into a smile. He wishes Merlin would hold his hand or maybe touch his face. Or maybe, just maybe, Merlin will kiss him. It would be so nice to have the memory of Merlin kissing him before he goes.

But Merlin isn’t doing any of that. Instead, he looks anxious and scared as he straddles Arthur and rips off the glove from his hand. “Just hang on, alright? Keep breathing.”

Even though his vision’s blurry, Arthur can see when the bulge on Merlin’s palm slides open and bitter hurt floods him. Is Merlin really going to take the last bits of his life? After everything that’s happened between them, will Merlin really betray him like this?

Arthur gapes up at him, struggling to draw in raspy breaths and wanting to cry at the unexpected betrayal. But he can’t actually cry or plead or scream because he’s too weak to do anything but lie there on the pavement.

But his eyes must be showing his confusion and hurt because Merlin’s face falls and he looks close to tears. He gently touches Arthur’s face with his gloved hand. “I’m not going to hurt you,” he whispers. “I’d never...”

He squeezes his eyes shut and takes a deep breath before opening his eyes again and blinking hard. He appears to be steeling himself. “We don’t have much time so we need to hurry. I’m going to undo it, alright? It’ll feel intense, but I promise it won’t hurt. Just keep breathing. Can you do that for me?”

For a moment, Arthur doesn’t know what Merlin’s talking about. His brain is moving too slowly and it’s too focused on the pain and panic that’s clutching him. But breathing is something he can do and he manages to nod.

Merlin gives him a shaky smile, the feeding mouth on his palm twitching. Then he’s gently placing his hand against Arthur’s chest and Arthur holds his breath and tenses and whimpers softly, bracing himself for more pain.

“Shh...it’s alright,” Merlin’s whispering. “It won’t hurt, I promise. Breathe.”

To his surprise, a cooling sensation spreads through his chest, soothing the excruciating burning. That feels wonderful. But what feels even more wonderful is when a gentle, tingling sensation builds in his chest and slowly spreads through his body. The tingling is warm but not the burning fire from before. This warmth is lovely.

The cool press of Merlin’s palm against his chest soothes the worst of the pain and the pleasant warmth rapidly replaces the ferocious pain. But as the pain fades away, that soothing warmth builds; radiating through him and filling him with energy. It’s getting easier to breathe and as Arthur keeps staring up at Merlin, his face slowly morphs back into focus as his eyesight sharpens. The dull ache in his limbs fades away and his skin no longer feels dry. Arthur finally realizes what’s happening. Merlin’s doing the reverse of the feeding process. He’s giving Arthur the life forces he’s collected, pouring every precious second into Arthur and pulling him back from the brink of death.

As the process continues and the damage which the previous wraith had inflicted is healed, the intensity of that soothing warmth builds and turns into arousal. It coils in his stomach and spreads through him and Arthur can’t help but moan as his cock stiffens in his trousers, his heart thudding with renewed energy. He’s panting up at Merlin, shifting his hips and moaning softly at how good he feels.

Merlin’s smiling down at him. He’s still pale but he looks very relieved as he looks Arthur up and down, chuckling softly at the obvious bulge in his trousers. Thankfully, he doesn’t comment about it.

A part of Arthur knows he’s lying on the pavement and he’s in full view of anybody who might walk past, but he’s flooded with energy and arousal that are pulsing through him and he feels fantastic. He can breathe, he feels strong and he can’t remember ever being this hard before.

His eyes have slipped shut as he’d been basking in the intense feelings pounding through him, but when he opens his eyes a sliver and looks up at Merlin, all thoughts of how he’s feeling disappear.

Because Merlin’s no longer fully Merlin. Or at least, no longer his fully human form. His human form is rapidly disappearing and being replaced by green wisps of smoke that swirl and dance around them. There’s an intense frown of concentration on Merlin’s face as he uses every bit of energy he has left to stay in his corporeal form and continue feeding Arthur. His arm is the last bit of him to transform and when it disappears into a tendril of smoke, Arthur can’t help but whine at the loss.

He pants up at the green smoke that surrounds him, gently brushing his face, as if Merlin’s still worried about him.

Briefly squeezing his eyes shut and drawing in a deep breath to get a hold of himself again. Arthur pushes aside thoughts of his aching cock and he smiles up at the smoke. “I’m alright,” he mumbles. “I’m alright, I promise. I’ve never felt this good in my entire life.”

That reassurance must have been sufficient because the green mist rapidly forms into a ball and zooms away, heading towards the nearest portal.

* * *

The next few days are easily the most embarrassing of Arthur’s life. Somebody had called in the attack and Arthur’s found by his co-workers. Everybody knows Arthur has been attacked and that a wraith had given him his life back, but none of that helps lessen the humiliation of being found lying on the pavement, his jacket and shirt torn wide open and his cock straining at his trousers. He has to live through the embarrassing ordeal multiple times as he has to visit hospital, file his report and answer everybody’s questions.

To his surprise, the initial attack doesn’t leave as big of an emotional impact as he’d feared it would. Whenever he remembers the pain, the fear and that lifted hand with the gaping feeding mouth, he also remembers how good Merlin had made him feel. How quickly the pain had vanished. How turned on he’d gotten. How soothing Merlin’s voice had been. How Merlin had destroyed the wraith’s corporeal form and given every drop of his energy to Arthur, even though he’d known that it would result in him having to back to the lower world.

Instead of his nights being filled with nightmares, they’re filled with dreams featuring Merlin. Most of the dreams have Arthur re-living how Merlin had saved his life, how good he’d made him feel, how he’d calmed Arthur’s fear with his soothing words. But other dreams feature things that haven’t happened.

Arthur kissing Merlin. Arthur getting ridiculously turned on again but Merlin being in a similar state and the two of them being naked and tangled together. Merlin smiling at him as they’re sitting on the couch and watching one of their favourite movies; Arthur’s feet in Merlin’s lap. Going for a walk in the park, holding Merlin’s ungloved hand and Arthur’s palm pressing against the bulge on Merlin’s palm because he trusts Merlin with all his heart.

Unfortunately, all of this makes their already complicated situation even more complicated. Because all of those dreams are lovely, but there’s a glaring problem involved in all of it. Merlin cannot stay in the upper world unless he’s regularly feeding on human beings. Not only is Merlin feeding on others something that Arthur still can’t come to terms with one way or another, but Arthur’s entire career is based on upholding the law. How can he possibly have a relationship with Merlin if it’s also his job to report him and kick him out of their world if he violates the law?

In an ironic twist to the situation, Merlin spends about a week in the lower world, gathering enough energy to make the trip back up and to be able to take on his normal human form. Arthur hates that he’d been stuck in a horrible place for a week in exchange for having saved Arthur’s life. He also hates that by the time Merlin’s texted him that he’s back and he’d like to meet up with him to see how he’s doing, Arthur’s no closer to figuring out how to proceed.

* * *

He might not know what to say or how to move forward, but the moment Arthur’s through Gaius’ shop door and he sees Merlin coming towards him, his beautiful smile firmly on his face and looking happy to see him, Arthur suddenly finds himself pulling Merlin into a tight hug. That option hadn’t even been on his list of possibilities, but he can’t seem to make himself let go. “I know I’m supposed to thank you for saving my life, but saying thank you for what you did seems so ridiculously insufficient. I can’t believe what you did for me.”

Merlin sighs deeply and clings to him, his gloved hands tangled in Arthur’s shirt and his face buried in his neck. “I was so damn scared.”

Arthur smiles and rubs Merlin’s back. “I’m alright. You may have made me even younger than I was.”

Merlin chuckles into his neck, but the laughter is strained and he’s shaking.

Tightening his grip on him, Arthur presses his nose against Merlin’s neck, letting him feel him breathing. “I promise that I’m alright. I’ve been checked over by every medical professional in London. I’ve passed all the physical tests and everything’s fine.”

Merlin’s still shaking. “When I saw him on top of you and I saw what he was doing, my heart nearly stopped. Well, not really because I don’t have a heart. But I was terrified. And after I’d destroyed him and I looked at you...you were so close to death,” Merlin mumbles in a choked voice. “Your hair was gone, your eyes were sunken and milky looking, your skin was all wrinkled and you were shaking. Your chest was burned so badly and you were whimpering with pain. Your breathing was the worst. It was so raspy and slow. I was so scared that you’d just stop breathing and it would be too late.”

Pulling back, Arthur gently puts his hands on Merlin’s face and stares at him. “Look at me,” he says softly.

Slowly, Merlin lifts his scared eyes and stares at Arthur’s face. Arthur barely catches himself before he leans in to kiss Merlin and he manages to divert the leaning of his head that the last moment and press their foreheads together instead.

“You saved my life,” Arthur whispers.

Merlin clutches his hands, the leather gloves creaking softly. He closes his eyes and breathes deeply, slowly calming down. Finally, he pulls back a bit and he’s back to smiling. The smile is a bit shaky, but it’s there.

Arthur grins. “Alright?”

“I’m getting there. If you get random texts in the middle of the night with me panicking and asking if you’re really alive, just ignore me. If I had the ability to sleep, then that would probably spare you. Or maybe not because I’d just have nightmares and go on a texting binge when I scare myself awake.”

Arthur responds without having to think about it. “If you ever want to text me, then you text and I’ll respond. Especially if you’re not feeling well.”

That leaves Merlin staring at him with an unreadable expression on his face. It also leaves Arthur feeling incredibly uncomfortable because he doesn’t know if he should regret what he’d said or not or if he should try to take the words back.

And once again, Merlin is proving why he’s the single most complicated thing in Arthur’s life.

* * *

Thankfully, Arthur’s work keeps him very busy over the next three weeks so he has plenty of time to think about the whole situation with Merlin. Which really means that he spends a few minutes every night going back and forth over what to do before abandoning the decision making and pulling up something from his increasingly large array of Merlin-themed fantasies while he’s having a wank.

For some reason, the number of dark creatures that have decided to pop into London for a visit seems to have increased and Arthur spends his time racing from one disaster to another and he’s so tired by the end of each day that he sometimes has to skip his nightly happy time, which isn’t nice but it’s the way things are.

But oddly enough, Merlin doesn’t text him during the three week period. After the first week of silence, Arthur texts him to see if he’s alright and Merlin writes back a cheerful message that he’s fine but busy. Since Arthur’s the same, he decides to focus on work instead. But what’s also odd is that the three weeks don’t include a single report about Merlin having fed on somebody. This wouldn’t have been unusual prior to the reward program, but it hasn’t happened since the program’s introduction.

The whole thing does bother Arthur, but he doesn’t have time to go visit Merlin or properly poke his nose into his business, so he decides to wait until work’s calmed down.

Then he randomly gets a phone call from Gaius in the middle of the day, which is highly unusual. Making things worse is that Gaius has the answer to why Merlin’s been so quiet and it’s not good news.

“He’s making himself sick on your account,” Gaius tells him, sounding angry.

Arthur frowns. “What are you talking about?”

“He’s got it into his head that he’s not going to feed on humans any more and he’s come up with a daft idea that’s making him sick.”

His heart picks up speed as a shiver of fear runs down his back and Arthur clutches his phone. “What the hell is he doing?!”

Gaius sighs, as if he’s had enough of all of their stupidity. “He’s feeding on plants. And I don’t have to remind you that the life force of plants doesn’t agree with wraith physiology.”

Gaping at Merlin’s stupidity, a million questions start flying through Arthur’s head. But none of those questions are as important as the ache in his heart as he realizes that Merlin’s been sick for weeks and staying quiet about it; suffering in silence and all for Arthur’s supposed benefit.

He’s going to wring his stupid neck. Well, first he’s going to make him healthy again. Then he’ll wring his neck.

“I’ll be right over,” Arthur says.

* * *

The television’s dark when Arthur storms into Gaius’ flat and the couch is empty. Since he knows Merlin’s in the flat, seeing the empty couch and dark television emphasizes that Merlin’s not alright and it makes Arthur’s heart sink.

He barges into Merlin’s bedroom; the door banging off the wall with a thud as he stares at a lump hidden beneath layers of blankets on the bed. “You’re the world biggest idiot.”

There’s a weak moan from the bed, but no cheeky retort. With panic clutching his heart, Arthur hurries to the bed and yanks the blankets back until he’s unearthed Merlin’s face.

And he looks terrible. His face is gaunt with his skin having an odd green tinge to it, he only has small tufts of hair clinging to his head, his lips are the same greenish white colour as his skin and his eyes are milky white. It’s clear that Merlin is very, very sick.

Merlin’s physical appearance leaves him stunned and horrified. “Merlin...”

To his surprise, Merlin curls his white-green lips into a smile. “Hey. I’m alright. It’s not always this bad,” he mumbles, his voice raspy. “I’m just having a bad day today.”

“You...Merlin!” Arthur’s shaking, wanting to throttle him and hug him at the same time. “You know you can’t feed on plants!”

“Well, I can,” he whispers weakly. “It gives me enough energy that I can stay in my human form. The energy just isn’t very good for me.”

“I _sn’t v_ _ery good?!_ You’re poisoning yourself, you stupid git!”

“I’ll be fine. I’m experimenting with different plants. Some are better than others.” Then Merlin’s milky eyes squeeze shut and he holds his breath as his body shudders.

“You’re in pain,” Arthur says, his heart threatening to shatter completely.

“Just—just a bit. It’ll be better in a few minutes,” Merlin chokes out.

His hands are twitching with the urge to do something to help make Merlin feel better and after just a moment’s thought, it occurs to him that the solution is right in front of him. Reaching up, he shrugs off his jacket and yanks off his shirt. Ripping the blankets off Merlin, Arthur rolls him onto his back and kneels next to him. He grabs hold of one of Merlin’s hand and rips his glove off, pressing his palm against his chest; the small bulge pressing against his skin. “Feed on me. Hurry up.”

Merlin’s gaping up at him, making small sounds of pain, but once he realizes what Arthur’s suggesting, he forcibly curls up his trembling hand against Arthur’s chest. “No.”

“Don’t be stupid! You don’t have to take a lot, just enough to neutralize the poison. Then we’ll talk about this daft plan of yours and believe me, I have lots to say about it.”

But Merlin’s still shaking his head and to Arthur’s horror, Merlin’s face crumbles and he looks like he’d be crying if wraiths could cry. “No,” he whispers. “I won’t—I won’t go back. You can’t make me.”

Arthur wants to give Merlin a shake and demand that he stop talking rubbish and focus on what’s important, until he understands what Merlin’s talking about and why he’s worried. Sighing, Arthur drops Merlin’s tense hand and leans over him, gently cradling his face and rubbing his thumbs over his sunken cheeks. “I won’t report this, I promise. This won’t count, alright? Besides, I think you gave me more life back than you should have when you saved me. I have some to spare and I want to give that to you.”

Merlin’s still shaking and letting out pained whimpers, staring up at Arthur with his white eyes. He’s shaking from fear and Arthur’s heart aches. “I promise, I won’t send you back,” he whispers. “I just want you to feel better and then we’ll talk about this. Please. I hate seeing you in pain. Let me help, please.”

There’s a beat of silence, until Merlin’s finally nodding and squeezing his eyes shut.

Arthur gently takes his hand and waits for Merlin to spread his fingers open before he’s pressing his palm back against his chest. “Go on.”

Merlin keeps his eyes closed and his body is tense as he concentrates. Arthur feels the feeding mouth sliding open on his palm. Before the mouth latches on, a cooling sensation spreads over his chest, making his skin tingle pleasantly before the mouth clamps on and Merlin slowly begins to feed from him.

As before, the process starts slow as a nice warmth spreads through him. As Merlin slowly increases the pace of the suction, arousal begins to coil in his gut and his cock hardens; pressing against his trousers as Arthur gasps. For a moment, he lets his eyes drop shut and he loses himself in how great it feels.

Waves of intense pleasure roll through him and it feels even more incredible than it did last time. Even though Merlin’s taking instead of giving this time around, Arthur’s not recovering from being in massive amounts of pain and the intensity of the arousal leaves him shaking and moaning as his hips shift back and forth.

He’s pressing Merlin’s hand hard against his chest and completely losing himself in how great he’s feeling. His arousal builds and builds and he’s dangerously close to coming, before the intensity slowly begins to fade. The urge to come drifts further away and his frantic shifting and trembling eases. He doesn’t even mind that his orgasm is being pulled away from him because everything still feels so nice.

And as he’s slowly being tilted sideways and strong arms are gently lowering him to the bed, Arthur remembers where he is and who he’s with and he decides he likes this better. He’s still hard and aching but he’s already calming, which is good. While Arthur wouldn’t have complained in the midst of it, he doesn’t like the idea that his first orgasm with Merlin would have taken place while Merlin’s recovering from being sick and in pain and he’s glad Merlin’s stopped them before that became a reality.

“Arthur? You alright?”

Merlin’s voice sounds like his normal self and it makes Arthur smile. As he opens his eyes, he’s greeted by the beautiful sight of Merlin looking exactly like he usually does. Glowing skin, shining dark blue eyes, messy hair and a gorgeous smile. But there’s a hint of worry in the smile, which just won’t do.

“I think you know that I’m not only alright, but I’m about a mile ahead of alright.”

But Merlin doesn’t laugh. He’s looking Arthur over with a worried frown and he gently touches his chest. “Any pain? Burning sensation?”

Arthur shakes his head. He doesn’t bother looking down at his chest because he knows there won’t be a single mark on it or Merlin would be fussing a lot more. “I feel fantastic and you look great, so everything’s good.”

“I only took enough to counter the plant energy I’ve been consuming. I stopped way before you...got to the end. Not sure if you want me apologizing for that or not, but we didn’t really discuss things so...”

The abrupt reminder that Merlin has now witnessed him getting achingly hard twice; both times while the situation hadn’t been optimal for it makes Arthur flush.

Merlin makes a face. “Please don’t be embarrassed. I can either make the feeding hurt or make it feel really good. The process is always intense and I haven’t figured out how to do a mid-way approach that doesn’t involve needing hours to take a few minutes from someone.”

Having Merlin assessing the situation so clinically makes Arthur feel even worse because it sounds like Merlin’s regretting what’s happened. Like turning Arthur on was just an unintended side effect that Merlin’s regretting causing. And that makes the whole situation become even more awkward as the last hints of warmth fade away.

Merlin’s frowning at him. “I don’t blame you for regretting what happened. I was trying to experiment with different feeding options, I failed and you helped me feel better. You can think of the whole thing as both of us making each other feel good. We’re even so if you want, we can part ways and go back to doing things the way we’ve always done.”

Arthur frowns. “I don’t regret it. I’d never regret helping you feel better, especially when you were suffering like that. I’m a bit embarrassed over how I reacted, thought.”

Looking relieved, Merlin chuckles. “Don’t be. The majority of people react the same way. And truthfully, I like making you feel good.”

The admission makes some of that growing worry fade and Arthur smiles up at him. Now that that’s out of the way, Arthur finds himself thinking about their prior problem and his desire to talk about Merlin’s stupid experimentation. “So what’s all this stupid experimentation about? Why are you suddenly so keen on changing your feeding habits?”

Merlin’s eyes drop for a moment as he fiddles with one of the blankets. Arthur notices he hasn’t put his glove back on the hand he’d fed on Arthur with. Then Merlin seems to make up his mind about something and he looks determined but a bit scared when he looks up. “I was hoping you’d give me another chance.”

“Chance for what?”

“A chance to have another go at what we started on those three dates.”

The sudden turn in the conversation leaves Arthur reeling and he lies there, gaping up at Merlin.

“I know you still care for me and I feel the same way. But I also know you’re not alright with me having to feed on humans. It presents an ethical problem for you with your job and I know the whole is difficult for you. So I thought if I could learn to tolerate feeding plants, that would solve all of our problems. I could stay up here permanently and I wouldn’t present a professional and ethical problem for you. We could focus on just being together.”

Arthur stares at him, his heart breaking. “You were making yourself sick just to make things easier for me?!”

“I didn’t aim to make myself sick,” Merlin retorts. “I knew I wouldn’t be able to tolerate feeding on plants very well but I hoped my body would adjust to it if I did it in small amounts. And I did do better with some plants than with others. But overall, it wasn’t as effective as I’d hoped. I was sick all the time so I couldn’t help Gaius or spend time with you and I didn’t have the energy to maintain the human form I wanted.”

Arthur wants to point out that he doesn’t care what Merlin looks like, he’d feel the same way about him regardless. But that’s not the point.

Then Merlin shrugs, looking crestfallen. “So now we’re back at the start. I can keep experimenting, but I’m not too hopeful.”

The sadness in Merlin’s voice is making Arthur determined to find a solution. He refuses to accept that there’s no solution to this problem so he turns the facts around and around in his head, trying to look at everything from different angles. A thought keeps niggling in the back of his head; a thought that Merlin had been on the right track but he’d overlooked something. And after just a few more minutes of thought, an idea forms. It’s a crazy idea and possible a stupid one, but it’s an idea. “Merlin?”

“Hmm?”

“I may have an idea.”

Merlin perks up at those words and he looks hopeful as he stares down at him. “Yeah?”

“Yeah...so you can take a plant’s life force but the problem is that your body can’t properly use it, right?”

“Yeah...”

“Do you think it would harm me if you transferred the plant’s energy into me?”

Merlin frowns. “What are you on about?”

Propping himself up on his elbows, Arthur stares at him, already warming to the idea. “You can feed on a plant and transfer the energy to me before you get sick.”

“Okay...”

“My body would hopefully convert the energy into human form. Then you can take that energy from me.”

Merlin blinks at him. He opens his mouth to probably scoff at the insanity of the plan, but then he snaps his mouth shut and frowns as he thinks it over. “You know what? I’ve done it before. At least, half of it. The plant to human transfer.”

“Yeah?”

“Uh huh. Ages ago, I had this friend who was sick all the time. They’d feel better if I gave them a few minutes of life here and there but sometimes I didn’t have any to spare so I transferred it from a plant. It seemed to work well.”

Arthur grins as hope blooms in his chest. “So you think it’ll work?”

But Merlin doesn’t look convinced. “Would it work? Probably. But it won’t solve our problem.”

“What? Why not? You’d stay healthy and you wouldn’t be taking my actual life, you’d only be taking life that you’d transferred into me.”

“It wouldn’t work because I’d still be feeding on a human. You’d still have to report me and I’d still be playing the revolving portal door game.”

But Arthur shakes his head immediately. “I wouldn’t report you.”

Merlin sighs with annoyance. “Arthur, I don’t want you breaking the law on my account. You’ll regret it and that’ll lead to a mess.”

“As far as I’m concerned, you wouldn’t be breaking the law and I wouldn’t be breaking it by keeping this arrangement quiet.”

“How would I not be breaking the law?!”

“Legally speaking, you would be, yes. But as far as I’m concerned, you wouldn’t be. The law exists because we don’t want wraiths taking a human’s life force. Doing that shortens somebody’s life span and that’s not right. But if you’re taking energy that wasn’t mine to begin with, you’re not shortening my life span. I’m no worse off after the feeding as I was before.”

Merlin stares at him, his eyes wide with hope again, but he’s still cautious. “It wouldn’t be a one time thing, you know that. We’d have to do it regularly.”

“That’s fine. I enjoy the process and knowing that the whole thing is being done to keep you healthy and here with me makes it even better.”

Merlin’s staring down at him, his eyes huge. “You’d really do this for me?”

Arthur smiles because that’s a silly question. Instead of being complicated, the entire situation is now simple and straight forward, which is exactly what Arthur’s been hoping to achieve for months. Reaching over, he pulls Merlin down on top of him as he lies down and wraps his arms around Merlin’s back. “Yes, I would,” he tells him. “There’s actually very little I wouldn’t do for you.”

Merlin’s beautiful smile makes an appearance and Arthur can’t help but smile back. Now that they’ve finally figured things out, Arthur thinks he’ll finally be able to make all of his long held fantasies into reality and he can’t wait.

It seems Merlin’s thinking the same thing because he gently brushes the back of his fingers against Arthur’s face. Arthur nuzzles the fingers, loving the feel of Merlin’s fingers without the gloves on and he turns his head and presses a gentle kiss onto the bulge on Merlin’s palm.

The tender gesture makes emotions flicker over Merlin’s face and he draws in a shaky breath. “Please let me kiss you. I’ve been waiting for so long.”

Arthur grins and nuzzles his palm. “So have I,” he mumbles and tilts his head up to meet Merlin’s lips for a kiss.


End file.
